While searching for a blood factor thought to be responsible for promoting blood clotting, Edward Adelbert Doisy discovered the chemical nature of vitamin K. Doisy devised methods for producing and handling the compound, a great asset in treating hemorrhages in patients lacking natural defense mechanisms. Doisy shared the 1943 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with C. P. Henrik Dam, who was the original researcher of vitamin K. Doisy also isolated the female sex hormones estrone, estriol and estradiol. When synthesized, these hormones are valuable in treating some endocrinal disturbances, including symptoms of menopause. Doisy was born on Nov. 13, 1893, and died in 1986.

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